Without You we can do nothing...

I think you've done well if you can take one gem, one single nugget of wisdom away from a work-shop, or day of reflection.
Sifting through the bushels of facilitator-speak, there is almost always some kernel of great truth to be found, right?
And besides, this is the midwest, the hospitality is always generous, the food always good.

I attended one diocesan thang when I had just begun doing this for what I laughingly 9or laughably?) call a "living", where the key-note speaker, possessor of a very Big Name in the liturgical-industrial complex, began his address smiling about all the work he had put in on the past Christmas.

"I did THIS, and this, and then I did that, and I had done all of those, and gotten new ones of these and spent all this time planning that, and arranged and wrote and stapled and composed and phoned and directed and played and found and persuaded and taught and...."
He had a stand-up's timing, and a funny charming manner, and I thought excellent, and waited for the punchline.

And it came, "and then at 12:05 pm I slumped on the organ bench and thought, is that all there is? isn't anybody going to THANK US for the Christmas liturgies we made for them, all the things we gave them?"

And we all roared with recognitions, and I thought good, now he'll give us sitting here all smug the zinger we deserve -- WE didn't make anything, GOD DID IT ALL.

Of course you will always feel dissatisfied if you are looking for credit for something you didn't do. (Not to mention a fundamental misunderstanding of the identity of your employer/boss/client. Hint: not the guy who signs your check. As Gaudi liked to remark)

But that wasn't where he went with it, his talk went on to be about how we as pastoral musicians must avoid burn-out since we are so under-appreciated.
He wasn't being ironic at all! And around me people nodded even more knowingly at that!

So the nugget of wisdom I took away from that day didn't come from the speaker -- it was my realization that if the whole thrust of liturgical planning as taught by the LIC, and the focus of so much of the music, (actually, the texts thereof,) pushed by the LIC seems wrong, wrong, wrong... well there's a reason for that.

And that is that their understanding is wrong, wrong, wrong.

They really DO think it's all about what we do and what we're gonna do, and what we can do... no wonder so much of the prayer we sing is Pelagianism Lite.

But the leading lights of the LIC are coming around:

About 18 months ago I heard a lecture by a prominent liturgist who suggested that, instead of thinking that the liturgy is primarily the "work of the people"—as it is described in many liturgical circles—we should first think of the liturgy as the work of God. Look at that prayer again: "for when we proclaim the death of the Lord (the very definition of what we do at Mass) you continue the work of his redemption." God is always at work; working on each and every one of us and we experience this at Mass when we celebrate the Eucharist, proclaiming the cross and resurrection of Christ. But this is a holy exchange of work, for we must do our part, the necessary work that it takes to "proclaim the death of the Lord."

When I shared this with the members of the liturgy and spiritual life committee at our meeting last night, it dawned on me that this is a great stance to have when going to Mass: expecting that God will be hard at work on me, while I am doing the work of the liturgy.

I need to find "A Prayer Before Blogging"

Zenit carried this:

Benedict XVI has chosen to dedicate World Communications Day 2010 to the theme "The priest and pastoral ministry in a digital world: new media at the service of the Word."

The message for the 44th world day is addressed especially to priests, as the Church continues to celebrate the Year for Priests. The message also comes in the wake of last October's synod of bishops on the Word of God.

A communiqué from the Pontifical Council for Social Communications announced the theme today, feast of the archangels.

The Holy Father urges priests to "consider the new media as a powerful resource for their ministry in the service of the Word and wishes to express a word of encouragement in order to address the challenges stemming from the new digital culture," the communiqué explained. "If the new media is adequately known and appreciated, it can offer priests and all pastoral agents a wealth of data and content that previously was difficult to access, and it facilitates ways of collaboration and growth of communion that were unthinkable in the past."

Reaching out

The communiqué highlights the fact that "thanks to the new media, those who preach and make known the Word of life can reach, with words, sounds and images [...] individuals and whole communities on every continent."

This enables the creation of "new areas of knowledge and dialogue, enabling one to propose and carry out programs for communion," the council affirmed. "If used wisely, with the help of experts in technology and the culture of communion, the new media can thus become for priests and all pastoral agents a valid and effective instrument of true and profound evangelization and communion."

The Pontiff's statement suggests the hope that the communications media will be a new way to bring Christ to the streets.

"The priest's principal responsibility is to proclaim the Word of God made flesh, man, history, thus becoming a sign of that communion that God effects with man," the communiqué noted.

The World Day of Communications is the only worldwide celebration established by the Second Vatican Council. It is observed in most countries the Sunday before Pentecost.

Puzzled in a Puzzling Church

America magazine has a review of the memoir of Archbishop Weakland, formerly of Milwaukee, now of a retirement monastery IIRC, somewhere in NJ?
The review was written by a friend of the poor man, and is favorable, as one would expect, not just on account of the friendship, but because Weakland is a good and articulate writer.
She feels the book is, on balance, honest.

I intend to read it….. eventually. I intend to do everything “eventually.” In truth, days pass and I seem to have done nothing, or more precisely, done a great deal but gotten nothing done.
Several things struck me in the review.

One is the reviewer’s insistence, (surely echoing the memoir itself?) that the man’s life has been anchored by the Rule of Benedict.

Is there nothing about particular friendships in the rule?

That surprises me.

Another is this peculiar revelation of her reaction when the Weakland blackmail scandal first broke:

when I heard that he had had an affair with a man and that there had been a cash settlement of $450,000, two thoughts converged: one, that he fell in love; two, that nobody in church leadership—bishop, cardinal, whoever—should have free access to large sums of money. I knew that canon law allows bishops to avail themselves of church funds if the amount is not $500,000 or more, and to do so without the involvement of the diocesan finance committee. But less ($450,000 in the Weakland case) does not require oversight. This distinction, while legal in the strict sense of church law, seemed to me to fail a basic ethical test, as normal people understand ethics. I thought at the time that canon law needs some fixing; I still think so.

Really?
The law forbids an action beyond a certain limit, and someone obviously intent on doing something unethical or immoral knows that law and goes almost exactly as far as he can, violating the spirit of the law but not its letter, and your first thought is that the law ought to be changed?
Not that as sinners we will always seek ways to circumvent law and rules to which we pay lip service while trying not to get caught? and then lie to ourselves that we did nothing wrong?

(It is not strictly true that he went "almost exactly as far as he" could. He could have gone further, I suppose, and paid his ex-boyfriend $499,999. And ninety nine cents.)

But it seems likely that he knew what they could get away with without setting off alarms, I can’t give you half a million, people will be suspicious. Okay, I’ll take 450 thousand.

Gee, better change canon law, so we can effectively cap hush money payments bishops make to disgruntled former sex partners.

I didn’t know the amount of money up to which a bishop may avail himself no questions asked, but now that I do, the incident puts me in mind of nothing so much as several recent scandals involving homosexual predators who “groomed” their young victims, sometimes for years, while tkaing great care not to cross certain lines -- until eighteenth birthdays arrived.

Most intriguing of all, is the reviewer’s assertion that the book “raises big issues the church needs to grapple with honestly: the role of the laity in the contemporary church, and especially of women.“

I am curious as to how consternation about the place of women “especially” in the Church figures in the story of a man nearly destroyed by his closeted homosexuality.
Would the presence of galpals, (to use the kinder rhyming slang, and I’m not calling names, I’ve been one myself,) in the hierarchy have mitigated his SSA?
Can she possibly think the position of women be BETTER in a Church where gay men didn’t feel the need to hide their inclinations and their activities?

That is perfectly ludicrous.

But perhaps that’s not what she meant.

As I said, I intend to read the book.

Okay, but THIS is why you don’t get things done.
The train of thought, no, train of PAGES I was riding was New York Times Magazine -- The Red Book -- Jung -- Archetypes -- Catholics and Jung -- Catholics who hate Jung -- Catholics who buy Jung -- Leckey -- America -- Weakland…

Hungering for Love

I had never before heard of the Hindi custom, Karwa Chauth.

In a NYTimes piece under the Modern Love umbrella, (which often has pieces of monumental silliness, andwill feature crippling feats of verbal and mental gymnastics in an effort to avoid following a premise to its -- oh horrors!-- Politically Errant conclusion, but is usually entertaining,) an Indian-Canadian writer describes her mother's fasting to honor her husband.

When I was a child, growing up in a tiny Canadian mountain town where we were the only Indian immigrants, she used to tell me: “This is a day to honor my husband. Only when you are married will I tell you more.”

I used to think of that day as magical. But now that I am married, I am not so sure.

“It is good you remembered Karwa Chauth,” my mother said after I told her that I hadn’t eaten. I wanted to explain that I had not been fasting on purpose, only that I had forgotten to eat. But I didn’t have the heart to tell her the truth....

After our conversation, I went over to our refrigerator and opened it. I imagined myself making [my husband's] favorite meals, but I grew exhausted just thinking about it — the hours of preparation, the mess I would make in the kitchen. I called him instead.

“It’s Karwa Chauth,” I said mysteriously. “I’m fasting for your good health.” It sounded glamorous, this declaration. Wifely. Though it was a lie, he seemed rather surprised and pleased. Maybe even touched.

The woman seems to love her husband, seems to respect if not share her parents' beliefs.
Yet she does not embrace the custom.
Why not?

She has trouble acknowledging that what her parents share might possibly be love.

my father calls it as he sees it. The trouble is, he sees only half of everything.

On the subject of marriage, my father has given me the same talk over and over: “In the first few years, a man will want to have sex with his wife to make babies. Afterward, his wife will no longer interest him. That is all.”

My parents have always slept with their bedroom door open, and for years my brother slept on a cot near their bed. I remember being keenly aware of the absence of touch between my parents. Once, when I was 19 and feeling emboldened by a women’s studies class I’d taken in college, I asked my mother if she still had sex with my father.

“Wouldn’t you like to know!” she cried out. But even as she avoided answering, I noticed her hiding her flushed cheeks — the smallest hints of her longing?

Perhaps the writer also is guilty of seeing only half of everything -- is it so impossible that her mother's blush is the smallest of hints of her continuing physical intimacy with her husband, despite his pronouncements, (which surely echo the received wisdom of his culture,) that she can't possibly interest him?

I wonder if there is a reciprocal abstention or sacrifice by men on behalf of their wives, and the love they bear for women?

Such practices could very profitably be adopted as a spiritual exercise by Christians, I think, (and have been, I think by some Evangelical and conservative Catholic men's movements.)

I think ritualizing such fasts would be a most excellent form of inculturation.

(I am not starved for affection, but I would most gladly fast for love of Himself. And for someone who loves food, sometimes to distraction it seems, a fast is a very deliberate thing.)

Giving Shape to the Liturgical Year

Or, more aptly, recognizing its inherent shape and form.

Gary Penkala has some advice, which plays right into another of my unanswered prayers, my unsuccessful projects -- SING YOUR PART, FATHER!

Seminaries should teach priests their musical parts of the Mass, and should train them to sing what is theirs.
Singing is part of the celebrant's role — like preaching, and should be expected of him.
Goodness knows, it's "expected" of the congregation. "Nerves" or "my lousy voice" are not excuses.
Priests not totally "comfortable" with public speaking learn to deal with the "thorn" of delivering a homily.
I'm not sure I'd go so far as to advocating always singing the dialogues and presidential prayers (although there are some priests and communities who do).
Using these sung parts on occasion highlights important liturgical days. Our liturgical year risks becoming a flat, lifeless desert rather than a contoured, living landscape, if Pentecost sounds just like the 16th Sunday in Ordinary Time (but for red clothes).

Although I part company with him on one point, the dialogues? Yes, they should sung always.
If anything is sung, they should be.
Before you bother with songs, or even most parts of the ordinary.

But I thoroughly agree, singing the collects and preface is a most excellent manner in which to highlight the highpoints -- sing them on the major feasts and solemnities and holy days!

We have abandoned so much of the Catholic culture that once gave us wordless catechesis, that informed our Faith without our even realizing it, and in some cases, instead allowed secular culture to give rhythm to the year.

A Day Spa for Saints, or a Clinic for Sinners?

Or better, is the Barque of Peter a luxury liner for saints or a lifeboat for sinners?

I have no dog in this fight, so to speak, I don't believe that I have ever even met anyone in the SSPX, (full disclosure, I did once, inadvertently go to Mass at the chapel of "independent" schismatics, but I did not at that time know that there were schismatics.
I also, in those days, by mistake found myself worshiping with schismatics on t'other fringe of the Seamless Garment, a sect with Catholic in its name, and married and women priests, and thus forced to avail myself of a LifeTeen Last-Chance-Mass that evening to fulfill my Sunday obligation.
So you can see, I am an equal-opportunity Osteo-encephalitic.)

But I am fascinated by the continuing seeming newsworthiness of the continuing He Said/He Said, (ooooooooh! that mean ol' misogynistic hierarchy! ;oP) of the continuing ruckus over the lifting of the excommunication on the noted film critic, Richard "Bishop" Willimason.

I must say, I don't see the logic of the expressed reasons most of those who objected to the Pope's act of mercy.
There may be, in fact I believe there were, good arguments to be made mitigating against it, but the one being put forth over and over and over again ain't it.
Flunking Modern European history, being Politically Irregular rather than PC, being a mean or stupid son of a b****? Not excommunicatible offenses.

And where is the canon saying "Sinners Need Not Apply" for full communion with the Body of Christ? who has decreed that those already aboard the Barque are only to extend a lifeline if the drowning man bobbing or thrashing alongside is certifiably sinless?

And I'm not the only one with wonderings of the same sort:

Maybe those with doubts about the Apollo Moon landings should be questioned about their attitudes to the Treaty of Utrecht. Or Global warming deniers should fess up about their links to Lee Harvey Oswald.

I have my own candidate for the One Unforgivable Sin, and the leaders of the SSPX seem to be guilty of it -- lack of a sense of humor.
Cardinal Castrillón-Hoyos reveals this alarming tidbit,(I have cleaned up the syntax a bit, the English translation of the Cardinal's interview with Suddeutsche Zeitung seems to have been effected by a non-English speaker):

[The LeFebvrists he once met by chance] are good people, but sometimes fixated on the idea that all evil in the world has the reforms of the [Second Vatican] Council as its source. As I tried to relax the atmosphere and joked that if I were to choose a language for Mass, I would take Aramaic, the language of Christ, as I didn't know who had the bad idea to exchange the language of the Lord for the language of His [Roman] persecutors. They found it a very bad joke.

In Search of Gruntlement

When one is disgruntled, yet knows very well, from prior sublime experience, that one is more than capable of being adequately gruntled -- ought one to seek out gruntlement and simply avoid the source of disgruntlement, as a near occasion of sin?

At Our Lady of The Way We Do It Here, I find myself... well, distracted.

Tornado Siren

Never actually heard one before, not live... not even when the radar clearly showed one just next-door, and we spent the evening underground.

And kinda anti-climactic, now they say, (who, "they"? the Van Pattens?), we're just supposed to worry about thunder storms.

As if.

Trek back up from the basement.

Fittingly strange end to a strange day.

That's not an office for a friend, my lord...

A slope getting slipperier and sloppier by the minute....

Assisted suicide has been illegal in England for nearly 50 years.
But, ordered by the courts to clarify the law, the country’s top prosecutor on Wednesday set out a list of conditions under which his office would be unlikely to prosecute people who helped friends or relatives kill themselves.

The new guidelines are likely to make it easier for the terminally ill and those with degenerative diseases to receive help in committing suicide.

(Okay, I'm just gonna say this once...

... and then hopefully I can let it go.)

Thirteen-year-olds doing "Head and shoulders, knees and toes, knees and toes" at the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass?

Not appropriate.

(In the interest of full disclosure, that was not the song they were singing, just the moves that they were doing; and the accompanying photo is NOT from the liturgy I witnessed, but looks very like, except for the age of the children.)

"How to Pray"

A very long piece in the New York Times Magazine by Zev Chafets explores The Way We Pray Now.
(Because our relationship to God is different than in other places and than at other times in the past 200 years? No, I'm just snarking at the Times's "Way We Live Now, Way We Spend Now, Way We Think Now, Way We News Now"-speak)

As to validity, I can only comment on his comments on, and quotes from those involved in Catholic prayer.
I know that it is virtually impossible -- despite the gotcha style of many writers, bloggers (no, I'm not going to link to anyone, even the most egregious polemicist or snarker on either, or should I say "any?", of the Seamless Garment's fringes,) , etc. who speak and act as if it is -- to make sweeping generalizations about the "progressives", or the "traditionalists", or the "VCII generation", or the "Reform of the Reform crowd", or the"JP II priests"... the members of the Body, of the OHC & A form a continuum.
That said, despite the Here Comes Everybody character of the Church, I think I have discerned a flaw, or at least, a contradiction in the thinking of .... okay, not a wing, (does the Body of Christ have wings?) but a moderately cohesive chunk of the Church.

“People once learned to pray from priests and ministers and rabbis,” Liz Ellmann, executive director of Spiritual Directors International, told me.... “A lot of people today don’t have that training,” Ellman said, referring to traditional prayer. “They want to learn how to pray, but they feel awkward in a house of worship.”...

Once it was all simple. Catholics prayed in Latin for salvation in words and ceremonies dictated by the One True Church in Rome. Protestants prayed in fancy English for the expiation of sin and a place in a decorous heaven. Jews prayed in Hebrew to the One God who had inexplicably chosen us for a private destiny and saddled us with commandments.

And then, in the time it took to go from Frank Sinatra to the Beatles, these ancient taboos and walls began to crash. Prayer changed, too. For Catholics, the key event was the Second Vatican Council. “Vatican II was a course correction when it came to Catholic prayer,” says ...a professor of theology who is old enough to have personally experienced the change. “Emphasis shifted to the centrality of the Bible for Catholic prayer.”

Part of this populist shift involved better exposing laypeople to a centuries-old method of Biblical exegesis and meditation called lectio divina...

“Priests and women religious have always been taught to do this, but Vatican II called for ‘full and active participation’ by all Catholics. Part of that was praying in the vernacular. Another part was introducing lectio divina to laypeople.” After Vatican II the practice became widespread among the laity.

Catholic prayer has not only become more accessible to the laity, it seems; it has also become more private and personal. [One Sister of Mercy says] “Women religious have been very active in promoting deeper contemplative, mystical prayer. Until Vatican II, that was reserved for the very few. Now it is becoming the ordinary expectation for people with a regular prayer life.”

... the Eucharist remains the defining source of Catholic spirituality, but that you can have authentic spiritual experiences not mediated by ritual. “Most people don’t live in churches. And these days, most laypeople tend to do more contemplative prayer and less confession. The sacrament of penance has radically diminished since Vatican II.” .... There is a renewed popularity to the mystical component of prayer, and it is found especially in the retreat movement.

What I think I am reading in this and in much else recently, (please correct me or tell me what you think I am missing here,) as a brave front is put on in the face of incontrovertible bad news, a de facto embracing of the smaller, purer, (leaner, meaner?) Church that Benedict is, unjustly I believe, often accused of working toward, of wanting.
I say "unjustly" because while it is true that the Holy Father undoubtedly longs for a purer, more faithful Church, I think it certain that he views the loss of any members, any souls from the Body of Christ as deeply tragic collateral damage, not an aim in itself.
Just because he is not willing to scamper after those who reject Hard Sayings, (how does that go in John,"No, no guys, come back! I didn't mean it, it's just a METAPHOR!"?) doesn't mean he doesn't mourn every single lost sheep, and i think he has proved that with his efforts at reconciliation on all sides.

But it seems to me that some of the same people who decry the Pope's supposed eagerness to jettison the heterodox as if they were dead weight, (which I do not concede for a moment that he is,) try to make lemonade of the lemons of the hemorrhaging of the actively, (actuosa?) practicing that has beset the Church in the last few decades.

How else to explain obviously intelligent people claiming:
“Vatican II was a course correction when it came to Catholic prayer...Emphasis shifted to the centrality of the Bible for Catholic prayer.”

It is wishful thinking to pretend that the emphasis in prayer, in practice, as opposed to theory,) went anywhere other than to... well, to not praying.

And what evidence is there of this:
"Part of this populist shift involved better exposing laypeople to a centuries-old method of Biblical exegesis and meditation called lectio divina... After Vatican II the practice became widespread among the laity."

"Widespread"?????
No practice of prayer or worship or study became "widespread" among the Catholic laity in the wake of Vatican II, and most good practices that had previously been widespread became more unusual.

And finally, “Women religious have been very active in promoting deeper contemplative, mystical prayer. Until Vatican II, that was reserved for the very few. Now it is becoming the ordinary expectation for people with a regular prayer life.”

I would posit that a mystical experience of prayer may actually less common now, less sought after by ordinary Catholics in the wake of vigorous attempts to de-mystify liturgical prayer, to denigrate the supernatural aspects of the Faith, and to discourage the private prayer and devotions that were most liable to lead to a transcendent experience of communicating with the Almighty and the blessed who already enjoy the Beatific Vision full-time.
...................

Oh, and a complete tangent, but can I just say all men have more in common than we sometimes think we have?

“Evangelical Christians, Pentecostals, they go to church to pray,” [Rabbi] Gellman went on to say. “Why else would they be there? But Jews are different. People come to temple to identify with other Jews, or socialize. The writer Harry Golden once asked his father, who was an atheist, why he went to services every Saturday. The old man told him, ‘My friend Garfinkle goes to talk to God, and I go to talk to Garfinkle.’ There’s a lot of that.”

“At least they come,” I said.

“Sure. But when you have a large percentage at a religious service who aren’t actually praying, it dilutes the quality of the entire experience.”

“Like subprime mortgages on a bank’s balance sheet,” I said. “Toxic Jews.”....
“I think it’s important to use Hebrew, saying the traditional words, even if you don’t exactly know their meaning,” he said.

“Praying in English is like kissing through a veil,” one of the young assistants said.

“In the old days,” [another Rabbi] said, “cantors made the women cry. Now they just want to do performance pieces. And congregational singalongs aren’t the Jewish way of praying. Our prayers are meant to be chanted rhythmically.”

..................
Oh, and one other thing -- prooftexting from a reader-commentor?

For the Christians of the world, I believe some fellow named Jesus of Nazereth left pretty explicit instructions on how to go about praying in Matthew 6:5-13:
1. Don't make a public show of it. Do it privately. It's between you and God.
2. Keep it short and pretty simple.
3. Focus on what God wants, not what you want.

Hmmm...
I'm pretty sure that same Fellow suggested that people gather in His Name, because where they did, you know, in groups of "two or more"...?

It is good to remember, the OHC & A Church? It is a Church of "both/and."

Synchronicity

Wonderful visit from family, much making merry.
Dressing this weekend, I find I can no longer pretend just because it's a "shrunken jacket" that it's supposed to look that way.

But see how things turn out?

Food poisoning, the resolution to lose a little weight and an ember day, all at once!

Lucky me.

Wondering if there will be repercussions....

Very, very busy times, weddings, parish festival, "yoof" Masses, 40 hours, maybe a Sorrowful Mother novena, Benediction, and more funerals in a week than in the preceding two months.
And at one of them, all requests, couldn't do anything about the choice of music, bu crossed out the theologically offensive verse from all the choir hymnals.

There may have been those who questioned this, or objected.
We shall see.
Joining together, with bread and wine, and sharing our meal...

"This is your brain on throat-singing...."

Fascinating idea: studies indicate that certain sounds "recharge" the human brain.

The effect of music on the brain has, of course, been explored quite extensively by academics.... many of whom have focused their investigations into the effects of chanting on the brain.

Dr Alfred Tomatis, a French specialist in otolaryngology, believes that the ear helps to recharge the brain; that sound causes vibration in our bones, which amplifies the sound thus making the cranium resonate, and this stimulates the stapes bone of the inner ear – which, in turn, stimulates the brain. Tomatis claims that for the ear to help recharge the brain it needs to hear "all the frequencies of the voice spectrum, roughly 70 cycles per second to 9,000 cycles per second". These are the frequencies that can be heard in Gregorian chants, the one-voice chord of Tibetan monks and the throat chanting found in east Europe.

And of course, I had to wonder, is this respectable science, or do I just really, really want it to be because it meshes with my own prejudices? Or is it merely something some writer with a deadline latched on to that's either ancient history, or more or less fabricated?

Well, ya can trust everything you read on Wikipedia, right?

Dr. Alfred A. Tomatis (January 1, 1920–December 25, 2001) [Ancient history] was an internationally known otolaryngologist, and inventor. He received his Doctorate in Medicine from the Paris School of Medicine. His alternative [maybe not quite respectable science?] medicine theories of hearing and listening are known as the Tomatis method or Audio-Psycho-Phonology .

His approach began as an effort to help professional singers in his native Nice based on his idea that hearing is the root cause of a variety of ailments. His Listening Test and later his Electronic Ear therapy were designed to alleviate these problems. Most of the research conducted on this approach has not found any support for its use.

Tomatis adapted his techniques to target diverse disorders including auditory processing problems, dyslexia, learning disabilities, attention deficit disorders, autism, and sensory integration and motor-skill difficulties. It is also claimed to have helped adults fight depression, learn foreign languages faster, develop better communication skills, and improve both creativity and on-the-job performance. Some musicians, singers and actors also claim to have found it helpful in fine-tuning their artistic skills.

The Tomatis Method uses altered recordings of the patient's mother and extensively uses electronically modified music by Mozart. Some people therefore call it the Mozart Effect. [Ah. Okay, that old thing.] Tomatis wrote 14 books, and numerous articles. Only a few have been translated into English. The most complete book on Tomatis’ discoveries was written by one of his students, Pierre Sollier (Listening for Wellness, 2005, The Mozart Center Press).

... Soon after he began his practice, his father began sending him opera colleagues with voice problems. Tomatis soon discovered not only did traditional treatments not work but also that there was very little research on the voice. He came up with the theory that many of the voice problems were really hearing problems. He called his theory that "The voice does not produce what the ear does not hear," the "Tomatis effect" and was the hallmark of his career and his method.

He found that the voices of opera singers had damaged their own ears. While the ear can be damaged with sounds of 80 or 90 decibels, a male opera singer often produced 150 decibels. With damaged hearing, they were forcing their voices to produce sounds in registers they could no longer hear. In his attempt to retrain the singers, he developed his device, the Electronic Ear, which used earphones and sound filters to enhance the missing frequencies. The goal was to sensitize them to the missing frequencies.

Tomatis began treating a number of other problems with the same methods, including reading problems, dyslexia, depression, severe schizophrenia, and even autism. He was convinced that many of these problems result from a failure of communication, which has to do with listening and the ear. His approach was based on emerging knowledge of the physiology of the ear.

Scientific reports showed that the ear starts forming a few days after conception and that the ear is fully developed by the fourth month of pregnancy. Tomatis theorized that information coming from the fetal ear stimulates and guides the development of the brain. He believed that autism is a communication problem that begins in pregnancy, with the fetus not properly responding to the voice of the mother.

His most controversial method attempts to lead autistic children to recognize and respond to their mother's voice. He devised an apparatus to simulate the sound of the mother's voice as heard in the uterus, and to lead the child gradually to accept and respond to her real unfiltered voice. He reported that this method often brought startling results, with children crying with joy as they recognized their mother's voice for the first time.

In many of the different problems he attempted to solve, Tomatis was often very Freudian. He believed that many problems of learning disabilities, dyslexia, depression, schizophrenia, and depression were caused by some trauma resulting from broken relationships and poor communication. He found that treatment of these maladies requires the cooperation of the parents and even grandparents.

Tomatis theorized that the whole body is involved in the production of speech and language. He stated that reading, even silent reading, is an activity of the ear. He recommended reading out loud, not only for children and by children, but also by adults, for 30 minutes a day. He claimed this not only stimulates the brain but is the best way to learn.

In his autobiography, Tomatis recounts the many conflicts he had with the medical establishment in both France and Canada, where he later worked. He finally gave up and turned in his medical license, admitting that he was practicing very little medicine. He named his new field audio-psycho-phonology.

Tomatis reported in his autobiography that he regretted not providing scientific colleagues with more statistical evidence for his work along with his many publications. But he claimed that the benefits of his methods are difficult to measure.

The theory of the method was investigated in 1979 by Gomez for a masters thesis with thesis advisor Tomkiewicz at INSERM and published a few years later. The summary (translated) states: "We show how the scientific and ideological presuppositions which underlie his conception of psychopathology, based on intuition and magic thought, cannot constitute a coherent theoretical model."

Studies by John Kershner conclude that there is a lack of support for the educational efficacy of the Tomatis Listening Training Program (LTP) for learning disabled children. This 2 year study was limited to group of 26 students and used an auditory placebo similar to the LTP program. Tim Gilmor's meta-analysis, covering four smaller studies of the Tomatis method, including Kershner's work, found that "Positive effects sizes were found for each of the five behavioral domains analyzed".

The status of research was evaluated in an article by Jill Lawton. She stated "There were also not many objective test results available. Most studies were either not scientific, as in the case of Mrs. Flores' testimonial or the story of the monastery, or taken by centers that were probably trying to 'sell' the program."

A study was undertaken by the University of California on autistic children using the Tomatis sound therapy, its findings were published in 2007. The method used was randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled, crossover design. The study showed that there was improvement in the children, however none of it related to the treatment. The children that were given the placebo showed a higher percentage of improvement over those given the Tomatis treatment. The study concluded there was no improvement in language using the Tomatis Method.

And as I read it through, I realized, I think I babysat for a family in the '90s, watching the other three children while the parents flew their autistic son overseas in search of ANY efficacious therapy -- it may well have been to see Tomatis?

The Pope will Visit the Synagogue in Rome

According to the Global News Service of the Jewish People, Benedict, in his Rosh Hashanah greetings to the Jews of Rome, said he would visit the main synagogue in Rome after the High Holy Days.

The comments at the linked site are pretty funny.

Collections only once a year?????

It never occurred to me...

... that Michael Moore was Catholic.
But it is only natural that his social justice concerns, (if not, alas, all aspects of his public life,) would be informed by that Catholicism.

Would you want to live like that? Well, how about die, would you want to DIE like that?

A cautionary tale.

Knowing how fond I am of liquid refreshment, I cannot think anyone will ever assume that I don't want hydration, or presume to speak for me so, when I cannot speak for myself -- but it is a frightening thought.

Offering prayers for Vera, even though that is not her real name.
Offering prayers for all those being put to death, all the starving, all those who thirst.

Of Wowsers and Womyn and Wine

Ya gotta love that Cardinal Pell. (Actually I do. And for that matter, every time he sees him on TV, Himself says, Get a load o' THIS guy! What kinda bishop is THAT? and why don't WE [Americans] have any of 'em?)

Anyway, as I was contemplating, (didn't know I was a contemplative, did ya?) a mid-afternoon glass of Shiraz, (ah, that 'splains it, huh?) this caught my eye.

Cardinal George Pell, in his weekly column in the Australian Daily Telegraph, said alcohol abuse had devastating consequences and that Australia was "long overdue for a correction". He implied that banning alcohol advertising might be a good thing.

According to the cardinal hospital admissions for alcohol-related reasons in Australia had increased by 130 per cent for 18 to 24-year-olds and 200 per cent for women in the last nine years. He said 40,000 people are admitted to hospital annually with injuries and illnesses related to alcohol ...

The cardinal said that while he grew up in a pub, enjoyed a glass of wine and didn't think he "could be called a wowser" - an Australian term for a killjoy - "you can always have too much of a good thing: in the case of alcohol, with devastating consequences".

What struck me was how far, both recently, and really throughout my lifetime, women have come, in achieving equality with men, huh?

Shocking

A startling take on the so far brief reign of the current Archbishop of Westminster.
Ruth Gledhill, the religious writer for the secular Times, (she herself is Anglican, I believe?) writes what sounds, in places, like a press release from Archbishop Nichols personal hagiographer.
And on the eve of the release of his first pastoral letter, she offers a surprising contributor to British Catholicism's, and therefore, Nichol's current success

Archbishop Nichols, a conservative, is marking a near-triumphant start to his service as successor to Cardinal Cormac Murphy-O’Connor.

Although this has yet to be reflected in numbers of worshippers, Catholicism, along with other religions in Britain, is experiencing something of a renaissance.

This is thought partly to be due to the efforts of atheists such as Richard Dawkins and novelists such as Dan Brown and Philip Pullman. The publicity engendered by their fulminations seems to have had the opposite effect of that intended and proved the truth of the adage that no religion benefits as much from persecution as Christianity.

The number of seminarians or trainee priests at his seminary in Chelsea, Allen Hall, has risen for the third year after decades of decline, with a new intake of 12 this September bringing the total to 45.

Talk abut God's power to draw straight with crooked lines!

"I wasn’t born to be famous, but to love and serve Jesus Christ"

A fascinating, (I'll be the judge of that...," I say to Himself when he start a conversation that way,) storyof metanoia, conversion, choices:

Once a Calvin Klein model who smouldered bare-chested opposite J-Lo in a music video, and starred in Hollywood movies, [Eduardo] Verastegui's brooding looks and aquamarine eyes attracted thousands of (invariably screaming) female fans.

Today, the 35-year-old actor is a daily Mass-goer, committed to abstaining from sex before marriage, who flies to Darfur to help the starving, provides financial help for women considering abortions and organises house-building missions in Mexico....

[Six years ago] a casting director .. invited him to audition for [an English language film] . “I told him I barely spoke English” Verastegui recalls, “but he... promised me a language coach should I get the part.”

The coach, a committed Catholic, prompted by dint of gentle grilling, Verastegui’s reversion to the practice of his Catholic faith. “She used a Socratic method, just asking me questions: why had I wanted to become an actor in the first place? What did I think the true meaning of life? Was I really making the best use of my God-given talents.” Initially, Verastegui resisted. The crunch moment came when the coach asked if he believed his body “was a temple of the Holy Spirit.”

“I replied “yes” he recalls, and she said “then why are you living in a way that breaks the Commandments and offends God? For the first time I saw how my lifestyle had insulted the Lord,” says the actor, who next sought out a Mexican priest and poured out, in a three-hour confession, past sins.

The story that interests me isn't so much Verastegui’s, but the dialogue coach's -- talk about the lay apostolate!

And even though it is unlikely that she's as pretty as he is ;o) if I had it, hers would be the photo with which I would embellish this blog!

What's that question they ask, if you were accused of being a follower of Christ, would they be able to find any evidence to use against you?